Greyhounds

Being in Baltimore apparently has its privileges for Loyola. Not only did the Greyhounds have to make just a 34-mile trip from their campus to Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium in Annapolis for Saturday's NCAA tournament quarterfinal against Denver, but they also got a visit from Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis. In a video posted by the school, the 13-time Pro Bowler and two-time NFL Defensive Player of the Year spoke to the players before Wednesday's practice and encouraged them to play with passion and cooperation.

When the final horn sounded, Loyola players ran toward their big goalie, Jack Runkel, who stood to the left of the goal with both arms outstretched over his head. On a day when the Greyhounds wanted him to come up big, Runkel came up huge in No. 1 seeded Loyola's 7-5 win against No. 4 Notre Dame in an NCAA Division I semifinal in front of an announced 31,774 at Gillette Stadium on Saturday. The Greyhounds will play Maryland, a 16-10 winner over Duke in the other semifinal, in the championship game at 1 p.m. Monday.

Loyola attackman Eric Lusby played like he felt right at home Saturday. The Severna Park native, who is a graduate student, tied career highs with five goals and six points to lead the Greyhounds to a 10-9 win over Denver in an NCAA men's lacrosse tournament quarterfinal at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium before an announced 13,390, the fourth-largest crowd ever for this round. Loyola, the top seed in the tournament, advances to the semifinals for the first time since 1998.

These two teams will meet for the 18th time, but for the first time since 2010. Loyola owns a 12-5 lead in the series, but Notre Dame has won the last four meetings. These teams faced each other in the NCAA tournament just once with the Greyhounds enjoying a 21-5 thumping in the first round on May 11, 1997. The No. 4 seed Fighting Irish (13-2) defeated Yale, 13-7, in the first round and No. 5 seed Virginia, 12-10, in the quarterfinals. No. 1 seed Loyola (16-1) beat Canisius, 17-5, in the first round and Denver, 10-9, in the quarterfinals.

There were times in Saturday's game against Towson when No. 11 Loyola threatened to blow away its crosstown rival. Then there were the final five minutes, when the Greyhounds all but imploded. Greyhounds goalie Jake Hagelin (Boys' Latin) stopped a desperation one-hopper by Matt Lamon (St. Mary's) as time expired, however, and host Loyola held on for a 7-6 win that injected more than a little anxiety into the announced 2,412 at brand-new Ridley Athletic Complex. "You never take a win in Division I for granted.

The bottom of Gilman's lineup helped the Greyhounds reach the top of the Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association A Conference on Thursday. Gilman's No. 2 doubles team of Jay Barrett and Will Faison rallied to win a tiebreaker that let the Greyhounds tie host Mount St. Joseph in the conference's title match. The only match left was at No. 3 singles where Galen Rende of Gilman was finishing off his 6-1, 4-6, 6-1 victory over Tristan Boustany. That completed Gilman's come-from-behind 3-2 victory over the Gaels in the A Conference championship.

The Loyola men's basketball team has played some great games as they've risen to the top of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference standings. Sunday's game at Reitz Arena will not be regarded as one of them. Down by just four at the half, the Greyhounds (19-6, 12-3) were out-rebounded, out-hustled and out-everything-elsed in a MAAC loss to Fairfield (15-10, 10-4) 68-51. Erik Etherly and Robert Olson lead the Greyhounds with 17 points apiece. Rakim Sanders led a very balanced Fairfield team with 13 points.

For Loyola, only two positive developments came out of its game against Manhattan last night.First, the Greyhounds won't have to face Manhattan in the quarterfinals of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference tournament. And second, B.J. Pendleton scored the 1,000th point of his career.The Greyhounds were pounded by the defending champions of the MAAC, as Manhattan built a 14-point lead at the half and rolled to an 84-71 victory at Reitz Arena.Manhattan (16-9, 9-4) is most likely headed to the No. 2 seed for the MAAC tournament, next weekend in Albany, N.Y. Loyola (13-12, 5-8)

Spurred by Zach Thornton, sixth-ranked Loyola scored early and often as it rolled to a 21-5 victory at UMBC last night.Thornton, a 6-foot-2, 210-pound senior midfielder, scored three of the game's first four goals, firing bullets from in close. UMBC goalie Chris Brown had almost no chance against any of them.The Greyhounds (8-1) next play at home Tuesday against No. 4 Syracuse. The next game for UMBC (4-6) is at home against Towson State next Saturday.Thornton opened the night's scoring unassisted when he dodged past two defenders and fired one over Brown's right shoulder 2:49 into the game.

Three weeks remain until Loyola's men's basketball team opens its season against William and Mary, but first-year coach Brian Ellerbe's era begins unofficially tomorrow night at 8, when the Greyhounds play host to the Converse All-Stars in their first exhibition game.The Greyhounds feature several key returning players, such as senior forward B. J. Pendleton and sophomore guard Milton Williams, although one Greyhound will be firing shots from the other side. Kevin Green, who racked up 2,154 points between 1988 and 1992 to become the second-leading scorer in Loyola history, plays for Converse.

Loyola attackmen Eric Lusby and Mike Sawyer have seen a lot of different zones and man-to-man defensive combinations this season. Fairfield tried to match up with them by using two short-stick midfielders. And last Saturday, Denver played a zone that shut off Sawyer, but Lubsy blew up the Pioneers for five goals in Loyola's 10-9 NCAA quarterfinal win at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium. Next up for the No. 1-seeded Greyhounds is No. 4 seed Notre Dame on Saturday in the semi-finals at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass.

ESPN analyst Paul Carcaterra was the sideline reporter for No. 1 seed Loyola's 10-9 win against unseeded Denver on Saturday. On Monday, he offered what he liked and what he didn't like in the Greyhounds' victory in the NCAA tournament's quarterfinal round. Thursday will feature Carcaterra's assessment of Maryland's 11-5 upset of No. 2 seed Johns Hopkins, but here is what he thought of Loyola's win. What Carcaterra liked: “I loved Loyola's pace. I think they've changed their approach and the way they attack in one year more than any other team I can remember in recent time, and I respect that so much.

Loyola will enjoy its first berth in the Final Four since 1998, but an unenviable task awaits the top-seeded Greyhounds (16-1) when they meet No. 4 seed Notre Dame in an NCAA tournament semifinal on Saturday at 2:30 p.m. at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass. The offense will try to become only the third opponent this season to decipher the Fighting Irish's bewildering defense, a unit so fundamentally sound that it has allowed only one team to reach double digits in goals this spring.

Falling in an NCAA tournament semifinal for the third time in four years was an outcome Stevenson had hoped to avoid. But even after Sunday's 7-2 setback to nine-time reigning national champion Salisbury, there was a lot to be happy about with the Mustangs. This was a squad that had graduated a combined 217 goals and 130 assists from attackmen Jimmy Dailey and Richie Ford and midfielders Neal Barthelme, Kyle Moffitt, Sean Calabrese and Jake Stocksdale. Add three starting defensemen in Evan Douglass, Kyle Menendez and Ian Hart and faceoff specialist Ray Witte, and not many people had given Stevenson much of a chance of reaching Sunday's stage.

Here are a few notes that didn't make Sunday's article on No. 1 seed Loyola's 10-9 decision against Denver in Saturday's NCAA tournament quarterfinal due to space constraints. *After getting their first 11 goals from 11 different players in a 14-13 overtime win against the Pioneers in an Eastern College Athletic Conference tournament semifinal May 2, the Greyhounds got six different scorers on Saturday. *Fifth-year senior attackman Eric Lusby set a career high with seven points, eclipsing his previous best of six points against Bellarmine on March 3. His five goals tied a career high.

With about six minutes left in the fourth quarter of Saturday's NCAA tournament quarterfinal in Annapolis and Loyola nursing a 10-8 lead, coach Charley Toomey did what many others would have - and have - done in his position. He took the air out of the ball, played keep-away, and forced Denver to double-team, thereby leaving the net open for an easy goal. That strategy, however, almost backfired on the top-seeded Greyhounds. Denver forced a turnover and turned that miscue into a goal by freshman midfielder Wes Berg with 2:43 remaining.

PHILADELPHIA -- St. Joseph's hadn't played since losing two games in the Wyoming Tournament to unheralded Mississippi State and Monmouth, but Loyola coach Brian Ellerbe said he knew his Greyhounds would have their hands full for yesterday's game against the Hawks."

The Loyola men's basketball team made history this past winter when it qualified for the NCAA tournament for the first time in 18 years. With its 10-9 decision over Denver Saturday, the men's lacrosse team advanced to its first Final Four since 1998. But junior long-stick midfielder Scott Ratliff said the players and coaches aren't content now. “We have a little higher expectation than just making the tournament,” he said. “I think we knew from the very beginning this fall how much we had in this locker room and that we had a good shot to get this program back to the Final Four.” The top-seeded Greyhounds (16-1)

Top-seeded Loyola is the most balanced team, but unseeded Maryland will be the toughest to push out of the Division I men's lacrosse final four. The four remaining teams were determined Sunday after No. 4 Notre Dame beat No 5. Virginia, 12-10, in one quarterfinal, and No. 3 Duke routed unseeded Colgate, 17-6, in the other. Loyola (16-1) will meet Notre Dame (13-2) in one semifinal Saturday in Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass., and the Terps (11-5) will play Atlantic Coast Conference-rival Duke (15-4)